The MP-7 layouted as a compact submachine gun, with magazine being inserted into pistol grip, with folding forward grip and telescoped buttstock, but
it designed to fire special, high velocity ammunition, 4.6x30mm, that looks like scaled down rifle round. That ammunition is unique to the MP-7.

To be honest its nice to see the armed police getting the very best, with terrorism in britain they need all the equipment they can get.

"I think the UK cops should get the HK G36s, 5.56 and selinced doing a raid at night why wake up next door :-)"

There're several reasons why cops wouldn't use any gun that firs the 5.56mm NATO (Rem .223) round as their primary firearm.

First, as our colleagues mentioned, the 5.56 NATO round is very high velocity, and regardless of the configuration of the bullet itself, would
penetrate just about any interior wall, with the possibility of injuring or killing bystanders.

Second, there are very few pistols which can fire the 5.56 NATO round (the Thompson Contender comes to mind) and the recoil is so severe that it would
be almost impossible to retain the sight picture for a second shot.

I owned a 5.56 NATO carbine and have also fired the Thompson Contender in 5.56 NATO; it is simply not a handgun suited to anyone but slow-speed
silhouette target shooters.

And, of course, carrying around a carbine on a beat or even while walking around doing mundane police work is impractical and very intimidating to
many of the civilians cops much work with.

Finally, because of the velocity of the 5.56 NATO round, there is no way that it can be suppressed in flight. Although you could suppress the muzzle
blast, the fact that the bullet is supersonic means that there will be a sonic 'crack' as it moves.

Although many pistol rounds can be down-loaded to subsonic range, if a rifle cartridge is downloaded to a subsonic muzzle velocity, it would be
extremely inaccurate even with a longer barrel, and would not have enough energy to cycle an autoloading carbine, whether with delayed blowback
actuation or recoil actuation.

This is one of the reasons that both the Fabrique and Heckler PDWs feature a newer design of ammunition. You may note that the Fabrique P90 has a Vm
of about 900 ft/sec, but its abillity to defeat armor is good to about 50 meters. The Heckler MP-7 has a better range at which armor can be defeated
(200 m versus 50 m) but its Vm is so high that it simply can't be down-loaded for sonic suppression.

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
Wow, MP-7, it had to be the MP-7 since the UCP is still in prototype stage...interesting development, doesn't some US security forces us the P-90? in
Iraq as well?

P-90 is the competitor with the MP7, the US FBI use the MP7 as well as the P-90.
Its all about perferance.
The P-90 can punch armour but might not stop a man, where as the MP-7 can stop a man but might not punch through armour.

The small, lightweight MP7A1 (less than four pounds loaded) is capable of penetrating modern body armor, including that of the former Soviet Bloc
special forces, now the standard NATO test target. (CRISAT) www.hkdefense.us...

If you'd read up on the MP7A1 it has a damn good record against armour. They made the MP7A1, for Counter Terrorist work. Where terrorists might
actually be wearing body armour. It's made to go through it, every shot or as near to a 100% record as possible.

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